Game On

I have been guilty of frequent disappearances from the blog scene, failingly try to justify the same, in the end feeling sad to have missed out on recording many updates in my life and eventually forgetting their intricate details.

“I know not what I think, where I’m heading, unless I write it and read to understand what I am getting at.”

The cure to blogging disruptions is often advised to lie in taking up the challenge to write every day, even if it means writing a few words. I have forever been apprehensive of the blogging challenges due to a list of reasons:

I am confident of my failure of staying put to write for a whole month.

The perfectionist in me can’t see me blabber away just to fill a post (though that’s exactly what I do most of the time on this blog).

I don’t have the luxury of doing picture posts to sail through (you know why if you’re a reader of this blog).

I suck at giving apt titles to my posts and finding titles to last a month are enough to keep me doing just this all month, wait, I have to think of the body to match the post too.

I cannot for the life of me write short posts (blame it again on my habit of rambling) and that’s the trick to sustain a writing challenge, isn’t it?

The outcome?

I have been getting no where in terms of blogging. Over 100 drafts are praying hard in hope of seeing the light of being published someday. But the master procrastinator in me is too busy loathing in self-pity, collecting the blooming excuses in my mind.

Not anymore.

I have finally, against my mind’s extreme resistance, enrolled myself for the April A to Z Challenge. I know, you must be stupefied by my extreme step wondering why would I have jumped onto something so trying rather than a regular blog-a-thon?

Picture SourceTrust me, those were my exact thoughts before signing up. But now, that I have signed up (just a couple of days ago) here’s what I’m expecting to achieve in April:

Writing daily on a topic with the letter of the day. It’ll work up my rusty, poor vocabulary a fair bit.

Cover 26 letters in month of April because Sundays are off for sanity sake.

Make friends with new, like-minded, awesome bloggers (I am forever looking for them & this is going to get so much easier this way).

Learn to inculcate the discipline in writing & hopefully carry it on post April too.

Get serious with my love for writing and not treating it like a one-post-in-a-blue-moon affair.

Have this blog catch up on the sea of updates & the missed milestones in the days I was not blogging.

Hoping to improve my power of expression in the written word, which sucks big time.

With that deluge of expectations, let’s round-up the theme I’d be writing on all month. When I read the helping tips to sail through this mammoth challenge, one was to pick a theme to be guided in my thoughts while writing everyday. Honestly, it appeared pretty daunting given that I am not going to take up the fiction route at any point.

My blog is at no point going to drift from its prime focus of topics and will stick to real life drama of my life, so, you must expect personalposts in plenty but theme wise, I am going to target parentingand perhaps social issues (if I can muster enough courage to dig deeper and get dirty) primarily. Occasional book reviews will happen and few foodposts, though in slim probability but might feature in April.

Though the theme isn’t looking clear at this point, but I’m sure once I’ll get in the groove of writing, I will end up finding out a concrete theme to stick to.

If you’re also doing the April A to Z challenge, say hello (here or on Twitter). If you’d like to join in and are wondering how to start, find the badge in my sidebar, click it to reach the sign up page where more than thousand fabulous bloggers from the world over have registered already.

“Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.” – J.K. Rowling

Hello again and good luck with your challenge.
Your words: “I am confident of my failure of staying put to write for a whole month.” ring very familiar to me as this is pretty much the jist of what I thought last year, when I joined the 365k Club Challenge: that I’ll fail miserably within the first month. Instead, I did write 1000 words a day for a year. Now I’m doing the challenge for the second time and it’s not too bad so far. So, I hope your experience with A to Z will be similar :).

This is my first time doing the A to Z Challenge. Yours is one of the 5 blogs I’ll be following throughout. 🙂

It’s funny, I don’t have kids, and Parenting as a theme doesn’t particularly grab me. But I love your energy, and we struggle with a lot of the same writing/blogging challenges. At the moment I’m doing my own sort of “staycation” writer’s retreat, focusing on making progress on a couple of books I have in the works. I’m sure I will find inspiration in your posts!

My blog (http://grabmywrist.com/blog/) is about my experiences training in the peaceful martial art of Aikido. If you’re inclined, give it a look.

Welcome to my blog Linda 🙂
Thank you for choosing to stick around. I just hopped over to your blog and am impressed with the way you’ve chalked out your plan for April. Let’s see if we both can churn out something to hook each other to our content that might appear to be belong to niches we don’t usually read.
But, hey, isn’t this what this challenge is about?
Can’t wait for April the first 🙂

If you write it I will read it. Cheering you on! If I can get back to my home country by April I will join you. This is a great challenge for anyone who wants to strengthen their writing skills and it’s not Blabber….every sentence has a meaning, every topic worth heating out. Best wishes to you my dear!

Word.
Thank you for helping me regain my focus. I’d love to have you join in, because it’ll guarantee 26 posts from you in one month. Yay!
Hope you have a safe journey back home & enjoy your stay where ever you are 😀

{Hugs dear}
I know what you mean, it’s like something just keeps switching off the mojo in me too. This time around, though I’m planning to push boundaries to see how far I’ll go 😀
So good to see you back Pixie.
Please stay 🙂

Awesome ME.. I am so looking forward to read your posts. I am seriously thinking if I should give it a try.. not sure if I would be able to finish it given the crazy work schedule and the food blog. Sigh. But you do have an excited reader waiting in me 😀

Face behind the blog:

I am My Era, the name I chose because its initials read ME and that's what I blog about. I have noticed that the deeper I know about myself, the clearer I understand others and this blog is my journey into my own self.

I love to share my survival stories, parenting triumphs and failures, steps that are helping me minimize stress, create peace and build a life that I always wished for.

When I'm not working on my mother of the year award, you can find me reading, cooking or taking photos.

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